‘Oncolysis’ means destruction of a cancerous cell. Oncolytic virus therapy, or OVT, uses a specially designed virus to target and kill cancer cells.

The virus being used for OVT is the Vaccina virus, modified to target cancer cells, which it attacks and causes to explode or disintegrate

Unlike chemotherapy or radiation therapy, OVT has no side-effects like nausea, diarrhoea and hair loss

***

A cutting-edge therapy for cancer that uses an artificial virus to zero in on cancerous cells and cause them to disintegrate will be tested in India for the first time. Human trials for oncolytic virus therapy (OVT) are scheduled to begin in May.

A genetically manufactured virus is administered intravenously and once it enters the body, it seeks out tumours or cancerous lesions, leaving normal cells alone. Early trials in the UK have proved promising; trials in the US and in India will begin simultaneously. If these trials are successful, OVT could become standard treatment for cancers of all kinds.

Simultaneous trials will begin at the Artemis Health Institute in Gurgaon and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York, where one patient each will be administered a single dose and monitored for four to six weeks for improvement and side-effects. Only after the institutions are done with one patient will the procedure be tried on another. The Gurgaon hospital will conduct the trial on 50 patients, who will not have to pay for it.

“We are very confident the therapy will work. Early trials (conducted in England) have been fairly successful,” says Dr Kushagra Kataria, CEO, Artemis Health Institute. “This is a biological treatment and does not affect normal cells. Patients will not have to suffer from nausea, hair loss, diarrhoea and other symptoms that usually accompany chemotherapy and radiotherapy.”

Oncolytic viruses are live viruses that selectively target the highly divisive cancer cells that form into tumours. The virus chosen for these trials is called Vaccina, genetically created by Genelux, a biomedical firm. The same virus is also used for small pox vaccines. For cancer treatment, of course, it is programmed differently. In early trials, just one dose has resulted in complete cures. Experts say that once it is declared a success, the therapy will become cheap and affordable.

Many cancer hospitals are keen to use the therapy, but are waiting for the trials to be completed. Dr V.R. Pai, a medical oncologist at the Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, says, “This is definitely worth trying, and if successful, we will definitely start it at our hospital too. That it is a biological cure and cuts down on side-effects and increases the response rate can in itself be considered a breakthrough.”

In tests on animals, they were injected with a human tumour and then treated with the virus. It was noted that the procedure cured all types of cancer and there were no side-effects.

A connection between cancer and viruses has long been theorised, and case reports of cancer regression after immunisation or infection with an unrelated virus appeared at the beginning of the 20th century.

In India, early Phase 1 human trials are not permitted; late Phase 1 and early Phase 2 trials are. Since this is still considered a scientific experiment, many ethical guidelines will be followed.

“We are not opposed to human trials if all ethics and guidelines are followed strictly. However, this is intellectual scientific experimentation at the same time so we have to be very careful,” says a health ministry official. “Also, once the treatment is a success in one or two centres, it will be allowed at other hospitals.” Trials in India will target patients with cervical, head, neck and lung cancer. While lung cancer is the No. 1 cancer killer in the world, neck and cervical cancer are the more prevalent forms of the disease in India.

If you wish your letter to be considered for publication in the print magazine, we request you to use a proper name, with full postal address - you could still maintain your anonymity, but please desist from using unpublishable sobriquets and handles

Thank you to all those who have taken the trouble to read the article and share their thoughts. Out of the arguments made here, there are two that perhaps need answering. So here they go.

1. The first part of the article compares outcomes (relative percentages of population of the religions concerned) irrespective of the process that led to those outcomes - whether immigration, relatively faster population growth or conversions. This was for two reasons. One, to put the figure of 2.3 per cent in "numerical perspective", as the article itself explained. The second reason was that outcomes are ultimately what the crux of debate is about. The rest of the article in any case dealt with process - or conversions in this case, from both a contemporary and historical perspective.

2. Some commenters have tried to cast doubts on the reliability of Census 2001. Those who do this should bear in mind that Census 2001 was conducted by a BJP government. Considering the extreme importance that BJP gives to this issue, it would be reasonable to expect that IF it had perceived a problem with the methodology that was distorting the numbers, it would have fixed it. As the article mentioned, BJP or BJP-supported governments have been in power for 10 of the last 40 years, or about a quarter of the time, and the only reasonable conclusion one can arrive at is that any misreporting of numbers, real or perceived, would be marginal and hence, not of importance.

To all other arguments made, my answer is the following: Please read the article again, with particular focus on the quotations of Vivekananda and Monier Williams, and the history of the missionary efforts in Bengal and their outcome.

Thanks and Regards,
Tony Joseph

1/D-197

Mar 16, 2010

10:17 PM

These tests if succesful would be a boon to Cancer patients world wide and without doubt one of the greatest discoveries of modern medicine.

We at Outlookindia.com welcome feedback and your comments, including scathing criticism

But:

1. Scathing, passionate, even angry critiques are welcome, but please do not indulge in abuse and invective. Our Primary concern is to keep the debate civil. We urge our users to try and express their disagreements without being disagreeable. Personal attacks are not welcome. No ad hominem please.

2. Please do not post the same message again and again in the same or different threads

3. Please keep your responses confined to the subject matter of the article you are responding to. Please note that our comments section is not a general free-for-all but for feedback to articles/blogs posted on the site

4. Our endeavour is to keep these forums unmoderated and unexpurgated. But if any of the above three conditions are violated, we reserve the right to delete any comment that we deem objectionable and also to withdraw posting privileges from the abuser. Please also note that hate-speech is punishable by law and in extreme circumstances, we may be forced to take legal action by tracing the IP addresses of the poster.

5. If someone is being abusive or personal, or generally being a troll or a flame-baiter, please do not descend to their level. The best response to such posters is to ignore them and send us a message at Mail AT outlookindia DOT com with the subject header COMPLAINT

6. Please do not copy and paste copyrighted material. If you do think that an article elsewhere has relevance to the point you wish to make, please only quote what is considered fair-use and provide a link to the article under question.

7. There is no particular outlookindia.com line on any subject. The views expressed in our opinion section are those of the author concerned and not that of all of outlookindia.com or all its authors.

8. Please also note that you are solely responsible for the comments posted by you on the site. The comments could be deleted or edited entirely at our discretion if we find them objectionable. However, the mere fact of their existence on our site does not mean that we necessarily approve of their contents. In short, the onus of responsibility for the comments remains solely with the authors thereof. Outlookindia.com or any of its group publications, may, however, retains the right to publish any of these comments, with or without editing, in any medium whatsoever. It is therefore in your own interest to be careful before posting.

9.Outlookindia.com is not responsible in any manner whatsoever for how any search engine -- such as Google, Bing etc -- caches or displays these comments. Please note that you are solely responsible for posting these comments and it is a privilege being granted to our registered users which can be withdrawn in case of abuse. To reiterate:

a. Comments once posted can only be deleted at the discretion of outlookindia.com
b. The comments reflect the views of the authors and not of outlookindia.com
c. outlookindia.com is not responsible in any manner whatsoever for the way search engines cache or display these comments
d. Please therefore take due caution before you post any comments as your words could potentially be used against you